John Bortolotto St' Therese of the Child Jesus

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St. Therese of the Child Jesus
EIR Experience

• John Bortolotto St. Therese of the Child Jesus
• Ravi Mahabir, P.Eng. Golder Associates
• (Andrea Rincon, P.Eng. ATS)

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Heres what were going to talk about?

• How we kick started the program
• Challenges Successes
• Our plans for 2008 2009

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The kick start of the program..

• Meeting to discuss interests
• Focus on Teamwork, Respect, Fun!
• Program limited to Grades 3 to 8
• Everything else.well learn as we go!

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The kick start of the program..

• First activity Drinking Straw Tower

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The kick start of the program..

• First activity Drinking Straw Tower
• Used for all Grades (to start)
• Helped introduce the program to each Grade
• Showed the thought patterns of each Grade
• Provided insight for further activities
• Introduced kids to Teamwork
• Exceptional feedback from kids, teachers
  parents!

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Building on the initial success..

• Gathered ideas from teachers on interests in each
  Grade
• Built activities to match the interests

Grade 4 Energy Simple Machines
Grade 3 Cookie Activity Mining
Grade 8 Career Presentation
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Challenges Successes

• Avoid having to do Crowd Control
• Smaller groups (30 or less) makes for more fun!

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Challenges Successes

• Trying to create new activities for every meeting
  can be stressfull and very time consuming
• ..and they dont always work

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Challenges Successes

• Adapting activities found on the web, and from
  EIR handbook happy engineer(s) happy
  teacher(s) content kids

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Challenges Successes

• The SCIENCE CLUB!
• Grades 4 to 8
• Meet every 3 weeks
• Runs from 400pm to 530pm
• Extra cool hands-on activities
• Alternate days Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

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The St. Therese Science Club

• Makes scheduling easier for engineers (after
  work)
• Kids are there because they want to participate
• Started with 20 kids.then 24.then 28.then
  30.then 32.etc.

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Science Club Big FINALE 06/07

• End of year FIELD TRIP!!

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Science Club Big FINALE 07/08

• End of year with Science Outreach

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Lessons Learnt

• Less teaching, more hands-on learning
• Messy activities Happy kids
• Kids love Powerpoint presentations make
  learning easier
• End of class treats work well (extra sugar boost,
  then send them home!)
• Using short videos in presentations helps
• The Field Trip is a major attraction

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Year 4 We survived 3 years!!

• In-class teaching
• On a request basis
• Repeat customers already knocking on our doors
• General topics
• Cookie Mining
• Medieval Castles Simple Machines
• Structures

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Year 4 We survived 3 years!!

• Science Club
• Kids already asking when are we going to start
• General topics
• Food Chemistry
• Ice Cream Making
• Candy Making HUGE SUCCESS LAST 2 YEARS
• Flight Rockets
• Light, Colour
• Electricity

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To end.well let the smiles do the talking